August 18th 2022

Chapter 230
Our Celebration of Night

To this day, whenever they would have one of these sleepovers, when they would get to this part, she would be drawn back to remember the early days of Sleepster, here in this house. The late hours, after the young children had been put to bed… or sleeping bag… for the night, leaving only those with a more open-ended bedtime. It had been a long time, it felt, since they really did it the way they used to, the girls here and the boys elsewhere, but she remembered, especially this time, because Cecilia was here. She had vivid memories of sitting with her, of hearing her speak about the accident where she'd lost her mother, where she'd been injured and left to go through surgeries, and physical therapy, and as much recovery as she was ever bound to get. Now, all these years later, she would say that she had good days and bad days, ones where she hardly needed her crutch and could get by at the worse with someone's arm to hold on to for support, and other days where she felt that old familiar pain as strong as ever. She'd never bring it up, not to anyone she wasn't particularly close with; no one needed to know but them.

That Friday night, and the Saturday night that would follow, the late hours crowd was definitely a sizable one compared to the old times. Marianne and her little sisters were asleep upstairs, along with her niece Tori. Haley had the 'misfortune' of falling right in the middle, being too young for the late hours but also feeling too old to be relegated to miss out on it like the little kids did. The twins and MJ got to stay, but not her? Unfair! Maisie felt the same way, and the two of them went off grumbling, same as Caitlin and Harry Olsen did. Less argumentative on this, Lily had gladly gone to join Marianne, as had Francesca, and Winnie, and Harper and June. Little Felix almost stayed downstairs, asleep as he was, though this solely at the wish of his Aunt Maya, who wanted to hold the eleven-month-old while she could. She'd finally mock-relented to allow Mateo to take him up to the guest room, where they and Cara would be staying along with Sam and Dora.

When all the children, grumpy and not, had gone up, it split their overwhelming number with sixteen upstairs but still thirty below, only one third removed. It was almost ridiculous, but if they laughed it was only ever because it was wonderful. They were all of them spread around the living room, several on the floor, others packed on the couch, recently replaced for a larger one not unlike the one they'd had in Houston, minding the numbers they had on a regular night. They still had the recliner, Granny Lizzie's former favored seat, because how could they get rid of it when it was still good and it reminded them of her… Even with all this, they'd had to bring out a couple of extra seats, like the old attic bean bags, nowadays residing in the basement's playroom.

And now, in the spirit of the sleepover, the late hours crowd had turned itself not to any random conversation but a very wonderfully silly round of something between 'truth or dare' and 'never have I ever.' It all came out into something like 'who's got a story about…' About half of them were part of the family in some way, either as siblings, or cousins, or bound by marriage… or living together, while the other half was comprised of long time friends, former students, present students… Between that and the age gap running until the youngest in their group was half the age of the eldest and then some, it made for a curious mix of stories.

It started simply enough. This was about Maya's birthday, so Lucas asked the room at large for best birthday stories. That wasn't to mean necessarily good birthdays. They could be messy ones, so long as the resulting story was good.

"I've got one," Priya smiled easily, and as soon as she said it, Teddy guessed what it would be, as did the Friars, Calaharts, and Arroyos, while the others looked on with interest. "My daughter, Lily, and I have the same birthday," she revealed to those who didn't know. Not all of those who'd at least known about the shared date had heard the story, so she was more than happy to share it. "She was not due for another week, but that didn't mean she wouldn't come early, so I didn't want to risk it, told everyone I didn't want a party, nothing, until after she came. Turns out, they couldn't help themselves. Decided to throw me a surprise party. So, I came home, walked through the door… Surprise!" she intoned, hands lifting in the air, only to drop back down, accompanied with a noise like sploosh.

It got a sympathetic gasp out of the others in the room who'd had a baby, wide eyes and a few dropped jaws from the teenagers, and a mix of laughter at the story and at the others' reactions.

"Best present though," Priya finished with a smile. "Every year since."

The birthday stories dipped in and out, woven around other stories. Whoever told a story got to prompt the next one, and since they would all remember why they were here in the first place, it would turn back to birthdays again before deviating to something else. Priya, after her story, called for a funny injury story, which first got Riley to lament the fact that Dylan wasn't there, making Lucas, Maya, Nadine, Sophie, Chiara, and Rosa laugh with her, even as Phoebe raised her hand. Of course, she'd have a whole bag of those stories, she who used to never leave the house without her first aid kit. Her definition of a 'funny injury' had the majority of those listening feeling like they were in a near catastrophe as she shared the tale of when she'd fallen headfirst down her great aunt's laundry chute when she was five years old.

"I was tiny, I just slid down the whole way, landed in the basket that was at the bottom." Everyone stared. "Kicked a bottle of detergent that wasn't closed all the way, it spilled everywhere, so when I tried to get out of the basket, my foot slipped, the basket started to slide around on the floor. It was fun," Phoebe laughed, remembering. "Then the basket caught in a crack, flipped over. I lost this tooth here and got this scar," she pointed just at the edge of her nose. It was barely visible. Maya had always figured it was just a natural crease in her face. When she saw everyone's expressions looking back at her, she cleared her throat. "Birthday story?"

From there, Rosa answered the call and asked for a road trip story. Maya easily picked that one up with her journey from New York to Texas with her mother. She asked for another birthday story, and Stella gave one, asked for a school story. Teddy took it, asked for a birthday. Cecilia took it, asked for a first kiss story. It was the first one that sent a ruffle of quiet across the room as everyone paused to consider and sank into memories. Some got shy, almost blushing, like they wouldn't even dare to share any part of it and preferred to keep it to themselves. The thing that finally broke this silence was Desi's outspoken realization.

"I'm the only one in here who hasn't kissed anyone yet, aren't I?" she said, to herself, really, only to realize that they'd all heard her. She blinked, looked like she suddenly wished she'd been young enough that they would have sent her off to bed by now.

Looking around at everyone, they slowly had to realize that Desi might have been right. They could tick them all off a list, one by one, most of them with barely a moment's consideration. There were very few where they'd actually look at them and wonder, guess from the looks on their faces. It was only really the teenagers, and most of those were Maya's siblings, her cousins… The Chen girls' faces said yes. It wasn't a question with the Hunter twins. Wyatt was scratching at his mustache, keeping his eyes well away from crossing any of his brothers' or sisters'.

"MJ?" Gracie blinked, looking at the Hunter boy, drawing Nellie and Maya's eyes toward him. His ears were flushing, always his tell, so much so that he'd try and keep his hair over them but then, being what his uncle Cory affectionately referred to as 'the heir to the Shawn Hunter magic hair,' his reflexes soon had those reddened ears revealed and revealing. Today, they let his sisters and many others know that he'd had his first kiss.

"Who was it? When did that happen?" Nellie asked, scooting closer on her knees until she could grab his arm.

"Come on, Star Boy," Gracie fell in with them, passing courage even as she couldn't disguise her curiosity. She wasn't the only one.

MJ looked at all of them sitting around, and they were all here with him, open to him and his story. He deserved to get to share this moment with them, and the twinkle in his eyes told them that it had been a good memory for him, all his own until today.

"Last summer, working at the diner," he revealed. "Mikey and I would be there early to open, just us and Nando. We'd talk… all the time. I wanted to kiss him… so much… hoped he wanted to kiss me, too. Then it was the morning when I went in there and I told him I was going to be away, because we were going to be in New York. When we were finishing our shift, he asked if I wanted to come hang out at his house after, and I did, so I went out there, we played video games for a while, and I kept trying to work up the nerve to do it… couldn't do it… Then I looked at him, and he was looking at me, too, and it was like… a shock… electric, you know? Because we knew it was going to happen… My heart was going so fast…" he breathed. "And then we kissed… We kissed for a while…" he admitted, making the twins grin even as Maya couldn't keep from feeling his happiness radiating out and loving all of it.

"Are you guys going to date?" Desi asked, but MJ shook his head.

"We tried it, but we decided we were better as friends." He didn't carry on, but his discreet little smile suggested that this had not stopped the boys from enjoying a kiss or several kisses now and again. Desi nodded, even as her mind sunk back to her status as the lone unkissed person in the living room. Nellie gave her a look, and she might not have said a word, but her face suggested that, if it was a kiss she wanted, Nellie knew exactly who Desi wanted to be kissing, and all she had to do was make a move.

Watching them, Maya had to agree… She happened to know exactly who this intended boy was. Desi Russell had had her eye on Tre Whitley since the fall of freshman year, when they'd met, and the feeling was mutual between the friends. The only thing possibly holding them back was one that Maya had seen time and time again. Two friends who were very conscious not only of what they wanted but also of what could happen, if they became something new… and were too scared to make a move. She'd been one of those kids, and maybe it didn't always work out, but she and Lucas were without a doubt proof that sometimes that gamble worked very well.

Sooner or later, the stories had to end. They put a pin in this exchange, looking forward to a second night like this, thirty people squeezed into a living room.

TO BE CONTINUED


See you tomorrow! - mooners